Dante the poet has finally wrapped up the pilgrim's time in the seventh of the evil pouches, the "malebolge" that make up the eighth circle of INFERNO, the great expanse of fraud. Our thieves have gone off stage and we're left with both an uncertain poet and a very certain prophet who sees Florence's destruction in the offing.
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the final passage among the thieves, a passage that stretches over the canto break from INFERNO XXV to canto XXVI.
Here are the segments of this episode of the podcast WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:36] My English translation of the passage: INFERNO, Canto XXV, Line 142 - Canto XXVI, Line 12. If you'd like to read along, you can find this passage on my website, markscarbrough.com.
[03:51] The final revelation of the metamorphosizing thieves--which raises more questions than it answers.
[06:53] An overview of the identities of the six thieves we've met in the seventh of fraud's malebolge.
[09:35] Four (or five) reasons Dante the poet may have been so cagey about the identities of the five Florentine thieves.
[17:11] Dante the poet slips a confession about his own writing into the end of Canto XXV.
[19:15] The denunciation of Florence: the final metamorphosis of the pilgrim into the poet-prophet.
[20:44] The dream of Florence's destruction--and a question about what "Prato" means in the text.
[25:05] The final metamorphosis is sorrow.
[28:43} The opening of Canto XXV is actually setting us up for the arrival of one of the great sinners of hell just ahead of us.